+ Result, Free Practice, Oulton Park
Marvin Kirchhöfer helped the Optimum Motorsport McLaren to the head of the timesheets during a wet-dry first practice session at Oulton Park, setting the benchmark time in the closing moments.
Likewise, Jack Mitchell’s late effort was enough to put the #69 Mahiki Racing Lotus Emira top of the GT4 pile.
Overnight rain meant the session began on a damp and greasy track, so many cars opted for a delayed start to wait for the conditions to improve. Callum Macleod and Sven Müller ventured out to set early times for the #3 Optimum McLaren and #66 Team Parker Racing Porsche. Then when conditions began to improve Rob Collard took chunks out of everybody in the #1 Barwell Lamborghini.
Martin Plowman switched to slicks and set a string of laps good enough to put the Paddock Motorsport McLaren as much as three seconds clear at one point, before the rest of the field followed suit. First Sandy Mitchell and then Hugo Cook took turns out front in the Barwell Huracans before running was halted by a red flag to clear the #14 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 from the gravel.
Just 10 minutes remained when the track went green again and Kirchhöfer wasted little time in going fastest, his 1:33.5s effort putting he and team-mate Morgan Tillbrook clear. Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam were second in their Blackthorn Aston Martin ahead of Collard/Cook and Macleod/Mike Price. Oliver Webb was fifth fastest in the Greystone GT McLaren.
GT4 was a similarly slow burn at the start, with Mitchell emerging from a late flurry of improved times to lead the pack.
Charlie Robertson put Century’s #71 BMW on top early on before all three of the Mahiki Lotus Emiras then took a turn to lower the benchmark as the track improved. Joe Wheeler and Josh Miller rotated the top time before Mitchell pulled 0.6s on the entire field just before the red flag.
That would be enough to keep he and team-mate Steven Lake on top, ahead of Miller/Aiden Neate in the sister car and Jack Brown/Marc Warren’s Optimum McLaren Artura. Robertson and Ravi Ramyead were fourth for Century, with Luca Hopkinson and Harry George rounding out the top five in the second Optimum Artura.
Pre-Qualifying is scheduled for 11:55.